Keep My Love
by DarkPoisonousLove
Summary: Valtor hates her. Yet, he still demands she gave him the love she promised him when he loved her back, and despite loving him still, Griffin can't afford to let go of her feelings and give them to him when it's all she has left to keep her breathing. Their love didn't use to be selfish but that's all that's left now. That and the battle between them to see who gets to keep it.


**A/N: I just got this idea today and it refused to leave me alone until I wrote it. It is set right after 3x10.**

Valtor appeared in her cell, the rush of the magic coming off of him triumphant and frantic, and it could be simply due to the sight she made all trapped in his game but she knew it wasn't just that. He reeked of victory to her senses that were always sharpened when it came to him. She'd become so familiar with his secrets and mannerisms that she could tell what was going on in his head just by looking at him. And the malicious grin on his face only confirmed what she'd read in his magic. He'd won a battle, and it somehow concerned her since he'd come to gloat.

Her thoughts didn't have the time to rush towards Faragonda and Saladin in worry as he stepped closer, moving towards her with the conquest in his eyes. It almost had her step back and reach for the monad hanging from her neck but she cut herself short. It wouldn't help her. Not against him. It only had the opposite effect when she was facing him. She couldn't draw strength from it just like she could no longer draw strength from his touch on her as it only weakened her. Or at least it would if he ever touched her.

He grabbed at her shoulder and her waist and pulled her into him, his body complementing hers into one whole being when they pressed together but she couldn't even enjoy that as he crashed his lips on hers, stealing all the breath out of her and every thought that wasn't about his mouth against hers, his tongue like sweet poison on her own.

She felt the rush enter her being, too, tugging fiercely at her magic just like it was at her emotions, for she could never remain impartial to his kiss and her powers were responding as well, reaching to meld with his back into the perfect harmony they'd once formed. She had to actually put effort into holding them back because if their magic ever tangled again, she would drown in the endless flow of power and emotion, and she couldn't. She could no longer die for him. Even if she wanted to.

His hand slipped into her hair and it unraveled under the pull of his magic like she unraveled under the pull of his fingers on the purple strands and the pull of the memories in both their heads. All that was left of her was the wanting moan of ecstasy that he swallowed just like he would do with every last part of her, with everything she gave him and everything she'd refuse to, forcing him to take it. He'd always been insatiable and she'd always fed him with her endless love for him that he, in turn, kept alive with his. It had been the secret of their partnership and its death as well since he would no longer love her. He was still happy to take from her, though, even when she had little to give him when he wasn't returning the favor.

Her hands found his chest and pushed to keep him away, for that was the only way she could live. Her lungs were failing with only his tongue in her mouth but not his breath since he refused to give her any part of himself and her brain was failing, too, with her love swallowing everything in its way but none coming from him to reciprocate. There was passion, of course–he'd always had so much of that that he'd had to engrave some of it in her to make sure it wouldn't burn him alive and she'd taken it happily, sheltering it inside her like it was the hearth in her home–but it wasn't enough for her since he'd always put passion in destruction, too. She needed love to survive in his arms. Love he wouldn't give her.

He let go of her and she let her chest heave in peace as her lungs drew oxygen, busying herself with staring in his eyes. It was of little interest to her what he could see in the depths of her own gaze as she studied him carefully, looking for the emotions that always tried to hide but never could in the transparent ice blue that only left them clear as day.

Valtor's hand cupped her cheek, drawing a gasp out of her that she had to hate herself for but if she allowed any self-loathing in her heart every time it quivered with emotion for him, she would have no time left to love herself. His thumb moved over her cheek, brushing the skin right under her eye and she knew she had to pull away from the touch since there was no affection or tenderness left in it but she couldn't make herself do so even when she knew that he'd destroyed everything he'd touched when his heart hadn't been full of love for her. It was why she'd never allowed him to touch her with his hate. And just because there was none of that coursing under his skin as its warmth seeped into hers, didn't mean she was safe.

"I wanted to pluck your eyes out when I first looked into them after all these years," he said, his voice full of longing that mirrored the one he must have seen in them because she'd longed for him. She had. She'd longed for the touch of his hand and his whispered confessions in her head. But longing was an empty emotion that needed something to fill it. And she couldn't give him anything when she was empty herself. "I wanted the treasure of their gold and I wanted to be the only thing they could see," he continued, stating openly his demand for more of her. She understood that as he'd never been able to get enough and she hadn't had enough of loving him too. It kept her heart fighting against the indifference she was imposing on it. "But then I remembered that that still wouldn't give me all of you." His gaze burned into her. Not with hate but not with love either. It burned with starvation. Like he was a wild beast and she was the only exotic dish that could save him from hungry death. And he expected her to let herself be devoured with reverence. "I want all of you."

"Why?" she asked, grateful her eyes were on his and not on his mouth, for the sight of him admitting he wanted her would've been tempting enough to seduce her into surrendering to him. Even when she knew it wasn't the love she wanted. He would never give her that no matter how hard she hoped. She was stunned he'd even admitted his want. It was out of character, to give her something she longed for. He'd used to give her everything, but not anymore. The only thing he gave her nowadays was pain, and not even his own since he'd never show her weakness. Especially not weakness for her. And it left her all confused, dazed and lost in a fantasy that was as untrue as a confession of love coming from him would be. And yet, she couldn't accuse him of lying, because it was all her doing, her awareness of the situation helpless against the haze she welcomed in her mind.

"You promised it to me," Valtor said on his way to a growl and pulled her even more into him–as if she could get any closer; she would've found how to if it was possible–startling a yelp out of her with the possessiveness of the action that made its way deep into her heart, tearing it apart when it had the want to be his again filling it until it was overflowing and ready to burst, ready to start giving to him, and it was painful to hold it back from doing so but she did. For that was the only scenario in which she could live. "Do you think I would absolve you of your pledge?" His grip on her tightened to painful and while she couldn't make herself pull away–or at least attempt to since he would never let go–she had to keep her emotional distance if she wanted to keep breathing. Even when the impulse to lean into the softness of his hand on her cheek couldn't be drowned out by the whimper that left her lips. "I want what is mine," Valtor leaned closer, her discomfort drawing him nearer like a moth to a flame. It was ironic, considering how the sweet call of his magic burned at the edges of her consciousness, tempting her to fall into it as his vindictiveness made it reach for her.

"My love is not a trophy for you to hang on your wall and look at when you need validation and praise," Griffin spoke, hoping that her weak breath would be able to reach and scorch him to have him pull away. He was too close, luring her feelings out where he could sink into them and revel in the feeling of her love while she faded into the emptiness left inside her. It was better to have her emotions clawing at her and leaving their marks behind in their desperate attempts to get away from her. At least she had proof that they were there, inside her and keeping her alive which, in turn, allowed her to keep loving him. It was what gave her life as long as she kept it inside her. It was the only thing that did and she couldn't give it to him when she knew he'd be selfish with it.

"I simply want what you promised me, Griffin," Valtor's voice was quiet and gentle, and the way her name sounded in it almost had her believing she could leave herself and her love in his hands, just lay down her defenses and give him all of herself. It sounded so familiar, so very soft, just like his breath was on her skin when he wasn't breathing out rage that would churn her to crisp. It was genuine with the impulse to devour it carried, and there was just a thin thread missing from it that she grabbed onto and hung by above his opened jaws just waiting to bite into her. There was no worship in the sound anymore and she held on to her own offering in response. "Your love's all mine," Valtor said, barely moving, and yet, somehow taking up all of her personal space with the invasive words. They were all over her brain, echoing inside it so harshly that the sound fell out and down her throat, filling her lungs and suffocating her with the knowledge of how well acquainted he was with her feelings. She'd allowed him to learn her heart from the inside out and he was the only one that would ever get to call it home, and he knew that. "And I have the key to it," he said, his hand leaving her cheek to close around the monad necklace hanging around her neck.

He grabbed it and pointed the tip towards her heart, pressing it into her chest as if it was a key he was trying to fit into the lock between her breasts and it would've hurt less to have him tug on the thread that kept it secure around her neck and strangle her. But he was bound to drag them into the past in his pursuit of his egoistical desires, drag them back to the parts of her she'd locked away, for they were different people from who they'd been when he'd given her the necklace and everything had changed since she'd allowed him to put it on her and lock into place her love for him. It had been all the engagement ring she'd needed and she would've given her life for him, if he hadn't tried to take so many other lives in his lust for power.

"You've always had it," she dived into the memories, for it was the only way to get out on the other side of them, as she moved her hand over his heart, feeling its beating escalate. It drew her to him just like the look of her surrender pulled him to her and they could stay like that forever, gravitating towards each other if one of them caved in but it wouldn't happen because she couldn't be the one to do it, and he would never. He couldn't let go of something he'd sunk his claws into when he believed that was the only thing keeping him afloat and she couldn't survive if she didn't feel appreciated like she knew would happen because he could never have enough. He'd had all of her once already and he'd turned his attention on getting more, leaving her in the background to wait for his love to give her light again and hope it would happen before she'd wither away. Her own love for him was the only thing that had her drawing in air in her desire to see it grow and she couldn't give it to him. So maybe she was selfish, too. It didn't change the fact that he was the same. "You just never knew how to use it," she said, watching the words hit him in the face and push him away, making her heart quiver with the need to pull him right back and kiss him until she had no breath left but that would just leave them both dead. And she wasn't ready to give up on the agony that loving him threw her in. She wasn't ready to let go of the pain of missing him when that was all she'd ever have, for he wouldn't love her again.

It looked like he wasn't ready either because he stepped back, pulling away from her with a force that almost ripped her heart out of her chest and jerked a cry out of her throat but the tug on the necklace that followed cut off her airflow, shutting her up. Because he had no idea how to use what he had.


End file.
